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Victory of China

In the middle of the nineteenth century there were two pubs in the Three Towns that went by the unusual name of the Victory of China – one in Raleigh Street, Plymouth, the other in Pembroke Street (on the corner of the erstwhile Stanley Street).

The inspiration for the name is almost certainly to be found in the first of the two mid-nineteenth century Anglo-Chinese Wars (1839-42 and 1856-60). Also known as the Opium Wars, these wars were prompted by China’s refusal to allow foreign entrance into the country and the subsequent efforts of the British East India Company to supply opium from India into China via Chinese smugglers (there was a growing number of Chinese addicts and the drug was illegal). Ultimately the British Government became involved and forces were sent from India and under the terms of the eventual settlement Hong Kong was ceded to the British.